History has been made today.  The Green Party has an MP in Canada's parliament.

Well, technically, the Green Party has an MP who is ready to sit in parliament, though it is unlikely parliament will sit before an election is called.

Indeed, after all is said and done, the Green Party might come out of all this never have had a sitting MP.

And certainly not an elected MP.

That might not matter much to some people, but I think these are more than just subtle distinctions.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 05:45 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Yesterday I wrote that the story of Blair Wilson was coming to a close.  I think that's likely to be true, but today I have to point out the Blair Wilson is putting up what might be a last minute fight.

Part of that is what might be an attempt to alter the understanding of what started the Elections Canada investigation in the first place.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:29 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Blair Wilson had admitted to violations of the Elections Act, but there will be no prosecution.  It is also likely that there will be no seat for Blair Wilson once this parliament rises for the last time.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Disgraced former Liberal MP Blair Wilson has not given up the fight.  Embroiled in a controversy over allegations of election spending irregularities, he has been told by the Liberal Party that he will not be allowed to run in the next election for the Liberals.

The justification?  Though Wilson has yet to have had any of the charges against him tested in a court, the Liberal Party has concluded that Wilson was not forthcoming on his applications to run as an MP.

Blair Wilson has promised to fight this decision, and has retained Jay Straith, the same lawyer who represented David Oliver in his fight against the NDP.

Looking over the rules, I think Blair Wilson has a fighting chance.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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News is breaking on disgraced former Liberal MP Blair Wilson.  The MP forced to quit the Liberal caucus over allegations that he committed egregious violations of the Elections Canada Act has been told by Stephane Dion that he will not be allowed to stand as a Liberal candidate in the next general election.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Over the last nine posts, I've presented the entire package of evidence presented to Elections Canada that purports to prove that Blair Wilson engaged in a pattern of deception in order to evade campaign spending limits. The former Liberal MP, now sitting as an independent, is under investigation by both Elections Canada and the Liberal Party.

The only conclusion that matters is the one that Elections Canada comes to, but we can look at the material and make some observations of our own.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:16 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson did not account properly for third-party advertising.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson ads in the Whistler Question but failed to report any advertising in this paper.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:22 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson ran a full pages ad in the Coast Reporter but reported it as a quarter-page ad.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson did not correctly account for a donation of custom imprinted umbrellas worth a significant amount in dollar value.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:20 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson spent a significant sum of money, not reported to Elections Canada, on a last minute mass mailing.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:37 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson did not correctly account for the printing of campaign material. But in the supporting documentation, we get a sense of the tensions within the campaign between those who would be careful to account for things correctly, and those who seem to think the Elections Canada rules are an afterthought.

We also learn of someone in the Liberal Party headquarters called "the big guy".

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson did not correctly account for the deeply discounted rent for the Marine Drive election campaign office.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the supporting documentation that alleges to show that Blair Wilson did not correctly account for the Cowrie Street election campaign office.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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We have all read the news reports about charges facing MP Blair Wilson, elected as a Liberal but now sitting as an independent. Blair Wilson is charged with serious breaches of the Elections Act. In order to help Canadians come to their own conclusions, I'll be posting the original complaint as it was delivered to Elections Canada, in its entirety, in this series of posts.

As far as I know, the original complaint has not be made available anywhere else.

In this post, we will look at the charges.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:18 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Blair Wilson is the Liberal MP who has resigned from the Liberal Party caucus over allegations of personal and electoral financial misdealings. However at least one element of the story has been called into question. Given that it is part of the political side of the story, it might be significant.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Blair Wilson will be forced to give up his seat. No question of that. The Liberal Party has plans for that seat. But unfortunately we need to rely on rumours to know what those plans are.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:52 AM | Comments (30) | Add Comment
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How did Blair Wilson ever pass the tests all nominees must undergo before being allowed to stand for the Liberal Party as a candidate for a riding? Some of the news being reported about Blair Wilson's resignation today makes me wonder if that part of the process is going to undergo some intense, and perhaps uncomfortable, scrutiny.

Curiously, though this incident on balance is just more bad news for Stephane Dion, in one way, it might work in his favour.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:26 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Stephane Dion has lost his national revenue critic and a member of his caucus. Blair Wilson, whose financial problems were splashed all over the news on Sunday, along with allegations of campaign irregularities, has resigned.

Does this solve a problem for Stephane Dion? Not at all, unfortunately for Stephane Dion.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:59 AM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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The allegations of financial mismanagement and electoral malfeasance being made against Liberal MP Blair Wilson are serious and apparently supported by documentation in addition to eyewitness accounts. Already people are speaking to the issue of whether Blair Wilson is even fit for office.

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion was badly burned by the Jamie Carroll incident. How will Dion react to the emerging Blair Wilson controversy?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:33 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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